Lesson 35– الدَّرْسُ الْخَامِسُ وَالثَّلاثُونَ

The Five Verbs – الأَفْعَالُ الخَمْسَةُ

Changing past and imperative verbs into five verbs form

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• It is clear now that the Arabic five verbs are made up of present tense verbs that should be suffixed with one of following:

1. Plural wāw (ونَ)
2. Dual alif ( انِ)
3. 2nd person feminine yā’ ( ينَ)

• It is important to note that the five verbs should be present tense verbs. View the following examples of verbs that are not of the five verbs, because they are past tense verbs or imperative verbs. See how they are changed into five verbs:

• If we look at examples 1 and 3 in the table above, we find that the verbs (اُعْبُدُوا – اُكْتُبِي) (uξbudū – uktubī) are imperative verbs. If we want these two verbs to become in the five verbs form, we should change them from the imperative to the present tense form as follows: (يَعْبُدُونَ، تَكْتُبِينَ) (yaξbudūn – taktubīn).
• If we look at the examples 2, 4 and 5, we find that the verbs (قالا – زَارُوا – كَتَبْتِ) (qala – zarū – katabti) are past tense verbs. In the light of the condition we already mentioned that five verbs should be in the present tense form, we should change them into the present verb form to become five verbs as follows: (يَقُولانِ – يزُورُونَ – تَكْتُبِينَ) (yaqulūn – yazurūn – taktubīn).
• The same rules of the present verb tense apply to the future tense verbs as we studied before that the future verb is a present verb prefixed with (sa-). View the following table:

• We studied that the future verbs is made up of a present tense verb preceded by either the suffix (sa-) or the particle (sawfa). Consequently, the future verb is a present verb plus a suffix or particle. This is why the same rules of the present verbs in the five verb form also apply to the future verbs.